Women’s Lawsuits Charge High-Tech Sexual Harassment

Two Bay-Area women have sued their employers, alleging that they suffered high-tech harassment in separate cases of sex, crime and videotape.

Jackie Burgo, a secretary at the law firm Boyd, Murry & Wick in Santa Rosa, filed a sexual harassment claim against her former employer after she discovered a video camera hidden under her desk. The camera, which could be activated by remote control, was housed inside a plywood box fastened underneath her desk.

Attorney Thomas F. Jeffrey admitted that he placed the camera there and also drilled a peephole from the men’s to the women’s restroom, according to the firm. Jeffrey was immediately fired. The law firm said it responded quickly and appropriately to a situation it described as being despicable.

In a separate suit filed Monday in Santa Clara, Julie Han complained that her former boss at Milpitas-based Adaptec Inc. allegedly tried to videotape her using a camera on the floor in his office. She also charged that mirrors were placed in strategic positions in the office. The company, which has not seen the suit, declined comment.

“I never heard of a case like this, but I guess it’s just the high-tech equivalent of the old grade-school trick where little boys put mirrors on their shoes to see up the girls’ skirts,” said San Jose attorney Steven Cohn, who specializes in sexual harassment cases and represents Han.